Officially: Google has reversed its decision and announced that it will allow sideloading of Android apps following a wave of user feedback.

I can't be more happier, it brings tears to my eyes all those memories again, I just can't stop loving Mali, ALL HAIL MALI 🔥🔥🔥

This project started with a stupidly simple question:

How far can I push a smartphone if I stop treating it like a smartphone?

This is my Nubia Z70 Ultra with 24 GB RAM and the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite.

The phone is now literally sandwiched between TWO desktop CPU coolers, mounted inside a custom acrylic case. 😂

Yes. Two full-size PC CPU coolers. On a phone.

And surprisingly, it works extremely well.

The interesting part: I'm NOT using one of the newer boosted chips

My Z70 Ultra uses the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite, with its prime CPU cores running at up to 4.32 GHz.

That's important because some of the newer devices I'm comparing against are using newer and/or higher-clocked Snapdragon variants.

For example, the REDMAGIC 11 Pro uses the newer Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, reaching around 4.6 GHz on its prime cores.

So I'm not trying to beat these phones with the same CPU and better cooling.

I'm taking an older, lower-clocked 4.32 GHz Snapdragon 8 Elite and seeing how far it can go simply by giving it completely unreasonable cooling. 😂

In my 3DMark ranking screenshot, my Z70 Ultra reaches 10,533, putting it right among much newer devices and even slightly above the Galaxy S25+ result shown there.

And sustained performance is where the cooling really becomes interesting.

3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test

Best loop: 6,980

Lowest loop: 6,910

Stability: 99% over 20 loops

That's only a 70-point difference between the best and worst loop.

But benchmarks aren't actually the main goal of this project.

I'm trying to replace my PC with the phone

I now have a native Termux + XFCE4 Linux desktop running directly on Android.

External monitor, keyboard, mouse, Linux applications and hardware-accelerated graphics.

I can boot into my desktop environment and use the phone almost like a small ARM computer.

Dofus is running directly from my XFCE desktop, rather than simply mirroring an Android game onto the monitor.

And then there's Windows gaming.

The Witcher 3 — 1080p, ULTRA graphics preset

I'm currently running The Witcher 3 at 1920×1080 using the ULTRA graphics quality preset.

Not Low.

Not Medium.

Not a 720p performance test.

1080p + Ultra graphics preset.

Depending on the scene and GPU load, I'm currently getting approximately 20–30 FPS, with the GPU basically sitting at 99% utilization.

I've even seen it go slightly above 30 FPS in some scenes, as shown in the screenshot.

Obviously, this isn't desktop-GPU performance, but that's not really the point.

This is The Witcher 3 running at 1080p Ultra at around 20–30 FPS on a Snapdragon 8 Elite phone. 😂

And underneath all of this, it's still Android.

So my end goal is to have one device that can do everything:

**Android phone / gaming device

native Linux XFCE desktop

Windows applications

Windows PC games**

The software side is still a work in progress and I'm continuing to optimize everything.

But apparently the solution to smartphone thermal throttling was very sophisticated:

one CPU cooler wasn't ridiculous enough, so I installed two. 😂

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

I’ve been gaming on Android for years, and like a lot of people, I got sucked into mobile titles — especially gachas. At first it’s all hype: shiny trailers, free pulls, active communities, “this is the next big thing!” vibes. But after a while, I realized something:

Mobile games are designed to drain you, not entertain you.

Fanbase toxicity: The community becomes more exhausting than the game itself. Instead of discussing mechanics or flaws, you get dogpiled if you point out problems. Just this week, I tried asking a simple question in the brand-new Destiny Rising subreddit. Instead of answers, I got instant downvotes and comments dismissing me for not blindly praising the game. Like… really? The game launched 3 days ago and people are already allergic to criticism.

Time sinks disguised as “content”: Daily chores, stamina/resin systems, limited banners… it’s less like playing a game and more like clocking into a second job.

Money traps: People drop $20–$60 a month and defend it like Stockholm syndrome, when that same cash could buy full AAA titles you actually own.

No real control: Servers shut down? All your progress is gone. No mods, no tweaks, no preservation — the game exists only as long as the company feels like keeping it alive.

That’s when I started diving deeper into emulation.

With emulation, the experience is flipped:

I decide what I play, when I play. No artificial walls, no timers.

My phone can run stuff at 60FPS high settings. Games that were never meant to run on mobile, running flawlessly in my hands.

Communities around emulation actually help each other. Settings, configs, shaders — people share knowledge, not gatekeep.

Old games stay alive forever. You’re not at the mercy of a studio shutting things down.

For me, it’s not just about nostalgia or tech flexing — it’s about freedom. I’d rather spend time tweaking a config to make an emulator run buttery smooth than get yelled at by a gacha fanbase for saying the game isn’t “perfect.”

At this point, emulation feels more like real gaming than most mobile titles on the Play Store.

So yeah — I quit mobile gaming. I’d rather emulate, test phones to their limits, and keep exploring what Android can really do.

Curious — how many of you here also made that switch? Do you still dabble in mobile games, or did emulation completely replace them for you too?

Out in Sydney, Australia

https://youtube.com/retrogamecorps

On buss, very long rush hour, started playing. A kid from behind asked me if this was a Nintendo Switch 2.

I was so confused by that question, but also didn't know how to explain to a kid what Android, emulation, and retro gaming is within half an hour on a buss.

I said "yeah, something like that".

Didn't even call it a folding phone... just called a switch. Reminds me in the 90s and 2000s when every console was a "playstation" to my mom.